An elderly American woman, Terri, has revealed that she sent almost $80,000 to her online boyfriend before realizing that their relationship might not be as genuine as it appeared.
During her appearance as a guest on the “Dr. Phil” show, Terri revealed that she met her lover “Ricardo” on Facebook Messenger two years ago.
Just a month into their communication, Ricardo asked Terri to invest $10,000 in Bitcoin, assuring her a quick return of $1 million within six months.
Convinced by his promise, Terri wired him the money and continued sending money to him, relying solely on photos and phone calls as evidence of his existence. Sadly, she never received any return on her investment.
While Ricardo claimed to be a U.S. citizen from Los Angeles, he said he couldn’t meet Terri in person because of his supposed relocation to Canada for work.
Whenever Terri tried to make arrangements to meet in person, Ricardo would always come up with an excuse to evade the meeting.
Terri’s sister, Tammy, who followed her to the show, stated that she strongly believed that she was being scammed but she refused to believe her.
“People are still telling me that Ricardo isn’t real, that he’s scamming me and that he’s not in Canada. “I don’t believe them … I believe Ricardo’s real,” Terri lamented.
Dr. Phil agreed with Tammy’s doubts and unveiled the truth about “Ricardo” by fact-checking the story he fed Terri.
Apparently, the man in the photos he sent to Terri’s real name is “James,” and it turns out that this is not the first time his photos have been used in romance scams.
James revealed that his pictures were taken from his social media accounts and exploited for romance scams.
“I’ve been dealing with this for over 10 years,” James said in a video sent to the “Dr. Phil” show. “I hope this video can show that I am the person in the photos, but I am not the person that Terri has been talking to and sending money to.”
Following the exposure, Terri revealed that she was heartbroken to discover that her lover was not real and vowed to block the scammer and get a new number.
